Quote of The Week:

"Retirement life is a game. Happy people are the players. Unhappy people are the spectators. Which would you like to be?
from Ernie Zelinski's How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free"

— Ernie J. Zelinski

We finally made it down to the Rotary Gardens Winter Wonderland Walk. I've mentioned this activity before, but we weren't able to go last week because it was so cold. And besides, our daughter Lori is here for the week, and we wanted to go with her. Jenny's sister and our two nieces also came along.

I should explain briefly that Rotary Gardens are botanical gardens that are maintained completely by volunteers, under the auspices of Rotary International. The concept of the gardens was actually the result of the dream of a local dentist, Dr. Robert Yahr. He was a member of Rotary, and also a frequent rider on my bus route when I was driving bus for the City back in the '80's. I actually recall speaking with Dr. Yahr about his "idea" of having an internationally recognized botanical garden in Janesville. Excuse me? an international garden in Janesville......Wisconsin!?!? By 1988, ground was broken and the gardens began to grow. Now, it is recognized as a leader in botanical circles, and horticulturalists from all over the world come to study. I've added a link to the gardens website in my links section if you'd like to learn more.

It was a beautiful evening to walk through the gardens. The temperature was about 33 degrees, with no wind. I took a number of pictures that I've posted that quite frankly do not do justice to the beauty of the gardens. I would encourage anyone within a reasonable driving distance to make the effort to get here this week to see it. It closes after the 1st of the year.

Please enjoy the picture tour of the walk, because if you can't get here in person, at least you'll be able to see some of it.

(  Winter Wonderland Walk )

Well, we rolled into Janesville around 4:30 p.m. on Friday the 9th. we were beginning to wonder if we'd ever get here!

We'd made arrangements to park the coach by a friends maintenance facility so that we'd have 30 amp service, so we drove straight there and hooked up. Then, because we had no water in the coach, we packed up a few things and went to Jenny's folks house. We'll stay there for the weekend.

Today (Saturday), we went out and bought the work lights that we HOPE will get things thawed in the coach. The temperatures are supposed to moderate some, so I'm hoping that the combination of the two will do the trick. Regardless, we'll take the coach to the dealer next week to have them look it over and to see if there's something that we can do to avoid similar problems in the future.

In the meantime, we're enjoying the time with Jenny's folks. We put up their Christmas tree for them (see a couple of pics) and helped out with some other decorations. I'll check back in over the next day or two with the results of our thawing efforts.

( Deck The Halls )

well, it looks like I'll be able to sneak in one more posting from Carolina Beach. I had to run over to the grocery store for some things for dinner, so I stopped by Port City Java to post these last pictures.

We did go to the Christmas Flotilla last night. It was alright, but after talking to some other folks, we should have gone to the one they had at Wrightsville Beach last weekend. This is the first year that Carolina Beach had a flotilla, so I guess they're learning. But considering how well known the Wrightsville Beach flotilla is, you'd think they would have been able to do a better job. There were long waits between boats, which made the whole thing seem to drag on. But all in all, it was something different and we enjoyed it.

A BIG thank you to everyone in Carolina Beach that made our stay so memorable. We loved it! We'll be back!
( Holiday Flotilla )

Last night, Jenny and I went to the Airlie Gardens to enjoy the Enchanted Walk. Airlie Gardens are lovely gardens similar to Rotary Gardens back in Janesville. I must admit that we were just a little disppointed in what we saw. There were some very nice decorated areas, and I've posted some pictures of them. But we were surprised that the plantings were not identified very well. It seemed like it was more like a park than a botanical gardens. Don't misunderstand me, they were very lovely. But all of the botanical gardens we've ever seen have usually been very good at labeling and identifying the flora and fawna. It was definitely worth the $5.00 admission price, because we had a wonderful walk on a cool, brisk December evening. We'd recommend it to anyone who would like a pleasant evening out.
( Airlie Gardens )